'We believe we can beat any team in the world' - Aaron Jones after USA's Super Eight qualification

The USA national cricket team made history by qualifying for the Super Eight stage of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 in their debut appearance. While their final group game against Ireland was washed out, victories over Canada and Pakistan sealed their progression. Vice-captain Aaron Jones believes this is the start for the rising cricket nation.

USA defeated Canada and Pakistan and lost to India before Ireland's no-result to finish second in their group. Their prize is three marquee matches against West Indies, South Africa, and potentially England in the Super Eights. It also books its spot at the 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.

Jones had boldly stated before the tournament that the USA had the talent to beat any team on their day. After making the knockout round, he repeated that claim.

"Yeah, I definitely believed that earlier this year when I spoke about it. To be honest with you, a lot of people don't really pay much attention to US cricket. So probably the whole world don't already know how much talent we have here and how good the players that we have here are. I think that could be a little advantage to us, but definitely, I think that on any given day, once we play proper cricket, we believe that we can beat any team in the world for sure," Jones said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

Also read: T20 World Cup 2026: USA in queue for direct qualification

It's a big thing for us to be honest: Aaron Jones

The batter revealed that the whole USA camp is happy about their qualification to the next stage and is celebrating the achievement.

"So we are grateful that we got to the Super Eights. But we left the hotel this morning thinking about playing cricket, we wanted to play cricket, Yeah, definitely we are celebrating. Everybody's happy right now. Qualifying for the Super Eights is big, so everybody's happy right now," Jones added.

Also read: US spokesperson's cheeky remark on Pakistan's T20 World Cup loss to USA

Jones recognises the significance of the USA's run for the growth of cricket in the country especially playing a tournament like the World Cup against the best teams in the world. 

"It's a big thing for us to be honest. Over the last couple of years, we've been speaking about playing in the World Cup, playing more games against the Full Member nations and stuff like that. And here we are doing it right now. And qualifying for the Super Eights is really good. Not only for us right now, but I think we'll qualify for the 2026 World Cup as well, so I think it's a big thing for us. Not only for us but the fans around America as well. We really appreciate them for sure and not only for the fans but for the younger generation in America as well," he added.